Operation Scare
by boo bat
Summary: Sena is forced to stay in a haunted house for a night, but he's not the only one staying there. ShinSena! Etc.


Operation Scare

Disclaimer: Eyeshield 21 belongs to Inagaki Riichiro and Murata Yusuke, etc.  
Notes: To get myself in the autumn mood, I decided to write something more um…autumny?

--

Sena wished he was smarter. Or just plain smart. Smart enough to get into any school that was not Deimon High – preferably Ojou – but he'd take whatever he could get at the moment.

"Get in, fucking shrimp!" Hiruma ordered and prodded Sena with the barrel of his submachine gun. Probably because if he shot at the house Sena was currently being forced to, it would fall to pieces and therefore make his entire scheme impossible. Sena couldn't decide if he'd rather be shot at or have to go along with Hiruma's plot.

"B-B-But—" Sena stuttered, looking pitifully at Mamori but Mamori was dressed as a salon girl and laughing psychotically behind Hiruma. Whatever Hiruma had said to her this time, Mamori was agreeing with his bullying and Sena really wished he knew just what Hiruma could say to Mamori since this was the second time she had gone insane – the last being at the school festival.

Sena wanted to cry. It really was a very bad thing when Hiruma was an enemy. Even worse when Mamori was on Hiruma's side. Where was protection when he needed it?

"Come on man! It'll be max great!" Monta slapped Sena on the shoulder. Sena noted he was keeping his hands quite cautiously away from Hiruma's gun. "There's nothing scary about this place anyways! Haunted houses don't really exist…"

Monta trailed off, staring wide-eyed, as a particularly loud gust of wind blew past and Sena swore every single board in that house rattled.

Sena's knees knocked together and he ground his teeth together very hard to keep them from chattering. He caught Monta looking rather apprehensively at the house.

So much for being confident.

Because that was exactly where the Deimon American football team was standing at the moment. Sena wondered again how he had gotten himself into this mess. The day had started out rather pleasantly in fact: Sena hadn't failed the sudden pop quiz in math, football practice had gone pretty well, Hiruma had only shot at him twice so far today… Sena had no clue where the day went wrong. Well that wasn't true. He had a pretty good idea of when everything all started going wrong – around the time when everyone was showering and changing in the locker room and Sena, a little late going inside, caught Hiruma whispering into Mamori's ear after practice. And then Mamori burst into scary, psychotic laughter and both their eyes gleamed in Sena's direction.

"Just go!" Hiruma ordered, jabbing the barrel of the gun harder into Sena's back.

Sena involuntarily and automatically jumped forward, sending another pathetic look in Mamori's direction, hoping she would rescue him. No such luck.

"B-B-But it's getting d-dark!" Sena protested, looking dreadingly up at the building.

Sena had no clue how Hiruma had even discovered this house except that Hiruma knew everything and everything included exactly where to find the scariest-looking most possibly haunted house in the Deimon district. How in the world Hiruma had even discovered Sena was terrified of ghosts and therefore, old houses that were probably full of them, Sena also had no clue, but if Sena was very honest with himself, he had to admit – it probably wasn't very hard to guess Sena was scared of things like this.

"That's the point, Sena," Mamori said, sounding calmer and more patient but since she was telling him to go inside, this didn't help of course.

"M-Mamori-neechan…" Sena just barely kept from whining. As much as it was embarrassing for him to look to her for protection and as much as he had tried to prove he was an adult to her this year, at the moment, Sena didn't really care. Anything to keep him from having to go inside.

"Don't worry, Sena! We'll come get you tomorrow morning!" Suzuna said, grinning widely at him. She looked entirely too happy about this, but Suzuna always looked like that so it was hard to tell if she was also getting sadistic pleasure from Sena's obvious misery or just being happy as usual.

Because this was what Hiruma had told him to do after they all got to the haunted house. Sena's task was to spend the entire night in this haunted mansion. When Sena asked what it had to do with football, he got a "Do it or die," and when he asked why he had to do it by himself and couldn't Monta or someone else go with him, he got a "Suck it up, fucking shrimp." Sena knew he had suffered a lot of horror at Hiruma and the American football team's hands, but right now, this seemed the worst of them all. At least in football, his opponents were real – no matter how fast Sena could run, he couldn't run away from _ghosts_.

Sena didn't even care if he looked like a coward right now. He was very willing to just be cowardly and timid and hide because he really really did not want to go into that very creepy house by himself.

"G-Good luck, Sena-kun," Kurita said.

At least one person looked as scared as Sena did, except that Kurita didn't have to go inside. It wasn't fair. Kurita was just as scared as Sena but everyone picked on Sena instead. The perks of being huge versus being a shrimp.

"There's nothing to worry about," Musashi spoke up too. For a moment Sena hoped at least the very-serious-and-not-at-all-prone-to-bullying-or-pranks Musashi would come to his rescue but… "The house won't fall. The foundation looks pretty solid…as long as there isn't an earthquake…" he finished.

"Huh."

"_Huh_."

"_HUUH_."

The three Huh brothers grinned rather meanly at Sena. They were _definitely_ having fun at the expense of Sena's terror. This just wasn't fair.

Hiruma looked at him. "Go in," he ordered, and began to aim his gun at Sena, getting a very creepy, sadistic-happy grin on his face. Which meant if Sena didn't obey in the next few seconds, he was going to get shot.

Sena cringed but it really looked like there was no way out of this. No one was on his side. Not even Cerberos who gave him a disdainful look and then lifted his leg against the porch railing while Taki and Yukimitsu quickly leapt out of the way.

Sena let out a sigh as Mamori gave him a sleeping bag and backpack. "Don't forget to brush your teeth before you sleep," she said.

Sena wished she wouldn't mother him about things like that if she wasn't going to help him get out of this.

"There's some toiletries and snacks in there," Mamori said and then Hiruma apparently lost his patience as he began jabbing the gun barrel into Sena's back and forcing him up the stairs of the porch.

"Just get in there, fucking shrimp! And don't even _think_ about trying to run," Hiruma said.

Sena could feel evil eyes boring into the back of his head scary enough that Sena trotted the last couple of steps up to the porch. Well, he thought, there was really no putting it off anymore. Sena had never even won against normal bullies like the Huh-huh brothers – there was no way he'd ever get his way against a devil like Hiruma.

Sometimes he really really wished he was bigger and stronger, and then maybe he'd be less cowardly.

Sena sighed, looking with trepidation up at the house with its dark, aged windows and worn wood. Well, it was just one night and it couldn't _really_ be haunted. He gulped, pushing the door open, and walked inside.

--

"What is this place?"

Shin turned to see Sakuraba shivering a little beside him as he, Sakuraba, Ootawara, and Takami stood in front of a rather run-down looking house. With its dark, aged windows and worn wood, every gust of wind that blew past sent the wooden boards rattling and shrieking.

Takami adjusted his glasses. "The Devil Bats asked for…help," he told them. "This is one of my family's properties scheduled to be knocked down in a few weeks. They asked to borrow it and want a few favors from us too," he said. His glasses glinted under the moonlight and he was grinning in a way that reminded Shin somewhat of Hiruma Yoichi. Shin wondered just what the Devil Bats had promised Takami in return.

Ootawara grinned. "Are we breaking it down?" he asked.

Considering how run-down the place was, Shin thought looking at the house, that wasn't such a ridiculous idea even if it was coming from Ootawara.

"No," Takami said. "Do _not_ try to break it down," he told Ootawara as he began leading the way up the path.

Shin caught sight of something and when he looked up, he saw one of the windows – the one closest to the roofing – was emitting a warm light. "Are the Deimons inside?" he asked.

Takami nodded, though instead of going through the front door, Takami led them around back, wading through the long overgrown grass until they got to the back door.

Here, Takami pulled out his cell phone. "Where is he?" he asked as soon as the person on the other end picked up. "Safe now? …okay, we're here," Takami said and shut his cell phone again before he pulled out a key to unlock the back door and then motioned them all inside.

The floorboards creaked under their feet as they walked but they held and not even Ootawara fell through as they went down first one dark hallway, and then another. Moonlight coming through the windows showed only brief glimpses of old rooms and furniture – most of the furniture draped in white sheets. It really was a very old house from the look of it, Western style for the most part though Shin also saw several Japanese-style tatami rooms as they walked.

He wondered a little why the house was so dark when people were inside.

Takami was leading them up old stairs when Ootawara, behind Shin, stepped a little too hard on one of the boards and a loud creak echoed through the house.

"Eep!"

Shin turned instinctively though the squeal was too short and the house too old and noisy for him to be able to tell exactly where it came from.

In front of him, Sakuraba began shaking and was staring with panicked eyes all around them.

Takami was also looking in alarm at the squeal but no one appeared.

"What're we waiting for?" Ootawara whispered loudly. He was picking his nose and received a glare from Takami as Takami motioned for them to be quiet and follow him.

Takami upped the pace as they hurried up the last of the stairs. As they got to the second story, Shin looked back down, eyes sweeping across the living room and hallways, but there was no movement at all.

Takami led them down the second story hallway but instead of going into one of the rooms, Takami picked up a long hook leaning against one corner of the hallway, and pressed it around the ceiling until it caught on a loop of string which fell dangling down. Takami pulled on the string and Shin watched as a square hole opened from the ceiling and Takami unfolded the ladder that was attached to the door of the attic. Warm light came from above so Shin realized it had to be where he had seen the light from outside – which made sense considering how high the window had been. Takami motioned for them to go up and since Sakuraba didn't seem inclined to, Shin led the way up the ladder with Sakuraba close behind, then Ootawara, and Takami last.

When Shin got to the top of the attic, he was slightly startled to see twelve pairs of eyes peering back at him, but as soon as Kurita moved forward to greet them, a loud creak came from the floorboards and Hiruma kicked him as he gestured for Shin to come up quickly.

No one said a word until Takami had safely pulled the ladder back up, sealing the attic door shut, and then everyone started talking at once.

"What are they doing here?"

"Shin-san? Sakuraba-san? This is max great!"

"Kurita! I challenge you—"

"Shut up!" Hiruma shouted and pointed his gun around the room though surprisingly, he didn't shoot at all. "If that shrimp realizes what's going on, you'll _all_ be doing a punishment game…" he said. His eyes and teeth glittered and no one had any doubt that Hiruma could and would follow through with the threat.

And as Shin looked around, he realized that indeed, Kobayakawa Sena was the only one of the permanent members missing from the Deimon team. He realized as he looked though, that something rather shady was going on since not only was everyone crowded up into an attic in one of Takami's houses, but there were two tables set up in front of Hiruma that had monitor screen after monitor screen stacked on top of each other that showed every single room of this house. The screens flickered and changed scenes, rotating to different angles in different rooms every few seconds.

They were up here monitoring someone who was inside, Shin realized – probably the somebody who had let out that squeal when they were coming up the stairs. As the video screens changed again and a figure appeared on the screen near what seemed to be the front door, Shin realized who it was they were monitoring.

"Kobayakawa Sena?"

Hiruma turned to him and grinned, showing all his teeth. "Welcome to Operation Scare The Living Shit Out Of Eyeshield 21!" he cackled.

--

tbc? Please review!


End file.
